How can a line manager support in improving performance

Line managers are an asset to businesses as they take away the responsibilities of assigning work and rotas, training members of their team, dealing with customers and clients and managing the day-to-day processes. In this blog, Centric HR discusses the many benefits of line managers for your business. 

So how can your line manager support you in improving performance? Line managers can improve performance by effectively managing their team’s time while developing their skills and knowledge for professional development. They have an understanding of the importance of health and wellbeing for their employees and have the skills to support them where necessary, making for a healthy work environment. 

Read on to find out more about how line managers support their team’s performance and how they can improve these skills.

How can line managers support a team’s performance?

A line manager’s main responsibility is to support their team’s development and improve their performance, ensuring that deadlines are met to a high standard. Depending on the size of the business, they may be responsible for a sole employee or a full team, but they should split their time between each member of the team to make sure everyone is developing to their full potential. They are managed by a higher level manager and will need to report on their team’s performance and discuss how they will improve their performance over the next period along with any issues they currently have. 

Below we discuss some of the many benefits that line managers can bring to a business:

Wellbeing

Line managers are responsible for the health and wellbeing of their team. They must have an understanding that their staff are not ‘robots’, employees are people that will sometimes have days where they can’t perform to the best of their ability. Having regular meetings with each member of their team can allow line managers to keep up to date with how everyone is doing both in terms of professional development and how their physical and mental health is. We have a course dedicated to Employee Health and Wellbeing to help your line managers support their staff. 

Appraisals

Introducing an appraisal process into the business gives both line managers and members of their team the opportunity to discuss the future of the employees and the business as a whole. Employees can use this discussion to express their professional development goals and check if it aligns with the business goals. To meet these goals, line managers should challenge their employees while providing enough support for them to grow. This could be via offering new opportunities such as taking on their first client. Why not introduce an Employee Relations course into your workplace, helping your line managers appraise their staff.

Expertise

As line managers usually work their way up in the business to reach the position, they gain the knowledge and skills required for the industry. This can then be passed onto members of the team as they develop, taking away valuable time from higher members of the team and reducing the amount of money needed for training courses. 

Time management

They have a responsibility to maximise their team’s productivity levels, ensuring that work is submitted on time to the highest possible standard. On top of this, to avoid employee burnout, they must make sure to balance the amount of pressure on their employees. Allowing appropriate breaks is essential, however they should also be able to recognise when a member of their team is not pulling their weight, putting unnecessary pressure on other members of the team. Centric HR has a course on Workforce Efficiency and Planning that can help your line managers improve their time management.

What are the benefits of improving line managers’ skills?

Line managers should aim for high standards for your business to reach its goals. There are many benefits to providing the opportunities for your line managers to develop their own skills and knowledge that should have a positive impact on other members of the business. 

These benefits include an approachable management style that allow them to create a trusting relationship with members of their team. You can rest assured that they are recruiting the correct people for the job based on their own experiences and the knowledge they have of the business’ needs. 

Allowing a line manager to develop their skills and knowledge is likely to produce a happier more motivated team member that feels valued. This motivation should also create a domino effect across their team as they bring new ideas into the workplace. When it comes to internal meetings, the newly gained knowledge and skills can allow for new ideas to be generated. All of these benefits will eventually lead to increased results and revenue for the business. 

How can line managers improve their skills?

There are courses available to help develop your line managers’ skills, including their people skills to help them deal with both internal employees and external clients. We have a myriad of Line Management People Skills courses available that include the following topics: 

• Self awareness – This can be tailored to help line managers understand their key styles and recognise their interpersonal skills and development.
• Attendance maximising – Intended to help line managers deal with long term and short term sickness within their team. They will also gain a deeper understanding of what keeps employees motivated to come to work. 
• Effective performance management – How to plan and implement appraisals, deadlines and manage poor performance.
• How to manage difficult conversations both internally and externally.
• The best practice for recruitment compliance.
• Equality and diversity – How to keep an unconscious bias during the interview and selection process. They will also gain an understanding of how to onboard and mentor new starters. 
• How to write reports for discipline and grievance investigations.
• How to manage disciplinary or grievance hearings and appeals.
• The basic skills for chairing meetings. 
• GDPR compliance for HR services.
• How to deal with change management
• How to effectively use time and manage their team’s time.

Line manager people skills courses at Centric HR

At Centric HR, we understand the importance of line managers within a team, which is why we can implement tailored courses into your business to develop their skills and knowledge. To find out more about the courses we offer and how it can benefit your business, please contact us here today.